The 24-trade table
The table records the billing shape and the context field each template is designed to make explicit. Yes in the third column counts 11 rows below; Sometimes is intentionally not included in that count. When an issued invoice needs a reduction, the credit note template keeps the correction linked to the original bill.
| Trade | Billing basis | Money up front? | The field disputes hinge on |
|---|---|---|---|
| General contractor | Labor + materials split | Yes — deposit | Deposit applied / balance remaining |
| Construction (GC, staged) | Stage payments against schedule | Yes — deposit + draws | Stage/milestone reference line |
| Independent contractor | Hourly, fixed-fee or retainer | Sometimes — retainer | Description of work per line |
| Roofing | Estimate → invoice, materials-heavy | Yes — deposit | Reference to the accepted estimate |
| Plumbing | Service call + parts & labor | No | Service-call line vs. repair lines |
| HVAC | Service call + parts & labor | No | Diagnostic fee shown separately |
| Electrical | Service call + parts & labor | No | Permit/inspection line |
| Landscaping | Recurring flat or per-visit | No | Visit date on each line |
| Catering | Per-head + staffing | Yes — deposit | Guest-count line (final vs. quoted) |
| Handyman | Hourly + materials | No | Hours × rate written out |
| Subcontractor | Progress billing | No — but retention withheld | Retention/retainage line |
| Auto repair | Estimate → parts & labor | No | Authorized-amount reference |
| Photography | Package + usage | Yes — deposit-balance | Deposit applied / balance remaining |
| Cleaning (commercial) | Recurring flat | No | Service period covered |
| House cleaning | Per-visit or recurring | No | Visit date + scope line |
| Trucking (owner-operator) | Per-load, mirrors rate con | No | Rate-confirmation number |
| Snow removal | Seasonal contract or per-push | Yes — seasonal prepay | Trigger-depth / service-date line |
| DJ | Per-event | Yes — deposit-balance | Event date + venue line |
| Musician / band | Per-performance + expenses | Yes — deposit common | Performance vs. expense lines |
| Residential landlord | Monthly rent | Yes — security deposit | Balance remaining (partial payments) |
| Towing | Hook fee + mileage + storage days | No — payment at release | Tow-ticket reference + storage dates |
| Attorney | Itemized time + separate costs | Yes — retainer, where agreed | Time-entry description + retainer balance |
| Hotel | Nightly room charges + dated incidentals | Yes — deposit, where agreed | Charge date + deposit applied |
| Pest control | Initial treatment or recurring service plan | No — billed visit | Treatment record + plan visit reference |
Money up front is a trade-culture line, not a size line
Whether a trade takes deposits in this corpus has little to do with invoice size and everything to do with what gets consumed before payment. The rows that collect up front — catering, roofing, photography, DJs and musicians — are the ones where materials, a blocked date or other work may be committed when a client says yes. The rows that do not — plumbing, HVAC and electrical work — commonly record delivery and collection around the same visit. If you are deciding whether to ask for a deposit, the useful question is not whether you are big enough; it is what your agreement and work plan say you risk if the work is cancelled.
The dispute field is almost never the total
In every row above, the field that gives a payer useful context is not just a money field: the rate-confirmation number on a trucking invoice, the stage reference on a construction invoice, the diagnostic fee on an HVAC invoice, or the visit date on a cleaning invoice. Totals become harder to review when the lines above them fail to explain themselves. The transferable lesson from this corpus is to write the relevant context line at billing time rather than trying to reconstruct it later.
Three billing archetypes across 24 trades
Across the table, three recurring shapes are useful comparisons: the split bill (an explicit labor-and-materials billing basis in 6 rows), the recurring statement (such as cleaning, landscaping and house cleaning), and the event bill (a deposit followed by a balance). These are editorial labels for patterns in the table, not exhaustive industry classifications. If your trade is not listed, use the closest structure as a starting point and adapt the factual fields to the work actually agreed.
About this analysis
This breakdown is compiled from the Invosmith template corpus: the field structures, billing conventions and dispute patterns we research and encode when building each trade's invoice template, cross-checked against how practitioners describe their billing. It is an editorial synthesis by our team — not a survey or transaction data. The 11 of 24 count includes only rows marked Yes; the 6 of 24 count includes billing bases that explicitly combine labor with materials or parts, excluding the materials-heavy roofing row. These counts describe the table above and nothing else. If the table changes, the counts change with it. Last updated: August 2026.